ADVENTURES INSIDE A GRAND PIANO
If there’s one musician who has a deep connection to ZXE it’s Matteo Ramon Arevalos; a true artist of the piano. http://www.matteoramonarevalos.org is a link to his website. He has played with us a number of times and if he lived in New York City instead of Ravenna, Italy he would probably be a member of the band. That would even things out in the band to two Italians and two Americans.
I first saw Matteo play at the Italian Consulate on Park Avenue. The program consisted of modernist Italian composers featuring Fausto Razzi of which Matteo made an album called Per Piano of Razzi's compostions. A remarkable album. One thing that struck me about Matteo's performance was his fingers spent as much time inside the grand piano as they did outside on the keyboard itself. I wound up being invited to go to a dinner with him after the concert and there I invited him to improvise with ZXE. At that rehearsal I lent him my digital piano where he proceeded to play either the lowest notes imaginable creating these thunderous sound clusters that shook the floor or attacking the highest notes sending a rain of angelic sounds on top of us. What I never heard was middle C or anything else that could be described as a normal piano sound.
He’s precise and yet playful. I’ve seen him in concert probably more than anyone else except for John Cale or King Crimson. In concert I've seen him "prepare" his grand piano with hand made toys, mosaics (I did mention he is from Ravenna, Italy) and even ping pong balls that bounce every time he plays the keyboard and clammer back down on the strings creating a secondary percussive element. Although I am emphasizing his playful nature; he is a formidable, classically trained pianist of the highest order.
For our ZXE recording session with Matteo we rented a grand piano from a funky place uptown. West Fifty something. In the opening of the final recording you can hear sirens go by in the distance. Typical New York. “We’re recording here” (think Midnight Cowboy). Because he can’t keep his fingers out of the inside of the piano nor his toys, for that matter, I wanted to post a sign “Verboten” over the the inside of the grand piano but I knew he would just ignore the sign. Also I’m not sure he reads German. Here is a short video clip of his contribution to Sound of Music.
It was a joyful New York afternoon spent with one of my favorite people on this or any other planet.
On my next blog I will introduce you to one of my favorite composers.
Till then,
Richard